PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Jason Roberts is the author of the national bestseller A Sense of the World, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, and named a best book of the year by the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Kirkus Reviews, and School Library Journal. The winner of the Van Zorn Prize for fiction (founded and awarded by Michael Chabon), he is a contributor to McSweeney's, The Believer, The Rumpus, and other publications, as well as editor of the bestselling 642 Things to Write About series. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Barely a dozen letters of the alphabet suffice to categorize every star in the cosmos, but when it comes to naming and classifying living things, the job gets more complicated. As Jason Roberts reveals in this vibrant scientific saga, taxonomists take up their mission with a mix of insight and foresight, colored by their moment in history, not to mention their foibles, their vanity, and their all-too-human prejudices. The thousands of definitive two-part labels given to plants and animals since the 18th century tell a story at once important, outrageous, enlightening, entertaining, enduring, and still evolving. * Dava Sobel, author of The Glass Universe, Galileo’s Daughter, and Longitude * A lively, panoramic contribution to the history of science. * Kirkus * Illuminating . . . an enthralling look at a pivotal period in the history of biology. * Publishers Weekly *
